The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-07-29
through the city with bis pantaloons in his

LuEOuSn Uu6 CITY Will Ills pdutdioUilS III Has
boots, big spur ON his heel and no martin
gale to his bride to keep his horses head in
rein. .** & -
Rents are high in Kansas City, and lead
ing business man who came here from
Quincy, Ills, tells me that house which
would cost him $25 month there will rent
here from $50 to $75 a month, and that it is
hard to get one at that. Business blocks rent
well, and as an instance was shown one
very fine stone building Of about five stories
which cost $3.50, 600 to build, and the rents of
which aggregate $50, 600 year.
One of the most extraordinary cases of
high rent being offered occurred in respect to
the 60x120 feet Of ground of which spoke in
my last letter as belonging to an independent
old lady who would not sell it to the New
York Life Insurance company This com
pany had whole block Of ground with the
exception OF this piece, and it wanted this to
complete the site for ten story building
which they propose to erect, costing about
Si,00O,0 GOO. They offered her many times its
value, one proposition being over $4,000
She refused. They then offered to pay her
such rental for a fifty years. lease that the
aggregage rent in this time would amount to
$1.OO0,000, or $4,000 year. She refused
this also, and the company have begun their
foundations tc build around her. It is said
she wants 100000 for the property, and
whether she win get it remains to be seen.
This independent old lady's name is Miss or
Mrs. March. She comes, lam told, from the
south, and is said to never sell anything. She
owns lands in Kentucky which she has had
for years, and she is as bright business
woman as lives west of the Mississippi river.
In the meantime her property is covered with
several small one and two story business
blocks, and it probably pays her several
thousand dollars year.
4**
'"There are great many very rich men in
Kansas City," said one of its leading bankers
to me today. 1.-THE town has a number of
millionaires and it has many men who are
worth between 100000 and S5OO,OOO. It is
true that eastern capitalists have invested
largely here, and know of a half dozen
Boston men each of whom owns several
millions Of dollars worth of our property.
The street cars Of the city are entirely owned
by eastern men, and the city stands in the
same condition as Chicago did just after the
fire. Eastern men had SO much invested that
they had to make the city go. They put
more to their investments and it was their ef-
forts largely that built Chicago It is the
same here There is so much capital involved
that the town has to 60 OH. The Atchison.
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad men also are
largely interested in Kansas City, and there
will be no lack OF push to keep it going. We
have, however, as / said, great deal of
H. ~ OF our own, and the rise in values has
made many men wealthy. Many farmers
about the city owned farms of from 100 to
200 and 800 acres The growth OF the CITY
and the laying out of such an area of lots has
made this land worth $1,000, $4,000, 5000
and even $4,000 an acre, and the farmers
have awakened to find themselves rich. Then
the jumps upward in real estate have been so
remarkable inside of the city that some men
have made a great deal. Not long ago
property on certain street, near certain
point, jumped upwards $500 front foot be-
tween e and o'clock p. m. The jump came
from the fact that a hotel to cost $3.50, 600 had
been located there, and one of my friends
bought q lot there that night and sold it the
next morning, SO that he made S13,O00."
"Don't you think property is too high here
now?"
"It probably is in some places, and notably
so in the lands outside of the city. It may be
also inside, but don't know. have thought
it was too high before, but it keeps going up
and the town keeps on growing. There may
be q fall, but there is no sign of it as yet.
*%*
Nevertheless, / would think twice before
buying Kansas City property for quick rise
at its current values. The city is very ragged
as yet, and it has room inside of its present
limits for another city nearly as big as it is.
There are many good lots yet unbailt upon,
and though new blocks are fast going up, it
will be some time before the town fills up its
present gaps, without attempting to build up
. score OF villages in the suburbs, as it is now
ioing. It is bound to be great city some
lay, but whether it has not gotten ahead of
it's growth at present is a question which is
not settled in the minds of the most conserv-
ltive of its own citizens and Of your humble
ervant, FRANK G.. CARPENTER.